China's manufacturing PMI fell in May from a month earlier

The National Bureau of Statistics recently released the operation of China's purchasing managers index in May 2023. From the perspective of the operation of China's manufacturing purchasing managers index, in May, the manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) was 48.8%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month (the same below), lower than the critical point, and the manufacturing business level fell slightly.

In terms of enterprise size, the PMI of large enterprises was 50%, up 0.7 percentage points, which was at the critical point; The PMI of small and medium-sized enterprises was 47.6 percent and 47.9 percent, down 1.6 and 1.1 percentage points, lower than the critical point.

In terms of sub-indexes, among the five sub-indexes that make up the manufacturing PMI, the supplier delivery time index is above the critical point, while the production index, new order index, raw material inventory index and employment index are all below the critical point.

The production index came in at 49.6 percent, down 0.6 percentage points, indicating a slowdown in manufacturing activity. The new orders index fell 0.5 percentage points to 48.3 percent, indicating that demand in the manufacturing market continued to fall. The raw material inventory index was 47.6 percent, down 0.3 percentage points, indicating that the decline in the inventory of major raw materials in the manufacturing industry has expanded. The employment index was 48.4 percent, down 0.4 percentage points, indicating a decline in the employment climate of manufacturing enterprises. The supplier delivery time index was 50.5%, up 0.2 percentage points, indicating that the delivery time of raw material suppliers in the manufacturing industry continued to accelerate.

In addition, from the operation of China's comprehensive PMI output index, in May, the comprehensive PMI output index was 52.9%, down 1.5 percentage points, and continued to remain in the boom range, indicating that the production and operation of Chinese enterprises generally continue to recover the development trend.